Turning Points

Alan Delmastro, a Bates security officer and Army Reserve veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, died on Jan. 27 as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident in Auburn, Maine.

Delmastro, of Lewiston, started at Bates in 2001. As a member of the New Hampshire-based 94th Military Police Company, U.S. Army Reserve, he served in Iraq from November 2002 until last fall, and returned to Bates in January.

Delmastro “was a silent leader,” says Rick Gilbert, a longtime friend and fellow Bates security officer. During heavy discussions, Gilbert recalls, “he’d sit quietly in the corner, and then step forward and say something, and everything would make sense.”

Delmastro’s radio call number at Bates, 16, has been retired, and his colleagues will wear that number on their uniform sleeves in tribute. He is survived by his wife, Trudy Delmastro, and their 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.

PROMOTIONS: Three faculty members received tenure in early 2005: assistant professors Pamela Johnson, of the art and visual culture department, and Michael Sargent, psychology; and associate professor John McClendon, African American studies and American cultural studies.

RETIREMENTS: Retiring at the end of the current academic year are Marcia Makris, who has been a lecturer in and visiting assistant professor of education; Carl Straub, professor of religion and Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies; and Anne Thompson, professor of English and Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies.

AWARDS: Three faculty members received institutional Phillips Fellowships, which support a yearlong leave at full pay for professional development: Pamela Baker ’69, professor of biology; J. Dykstra Eusden ’80, professor of geology; and Rebecca Herzig, associate professor of women and gender studies. In addition, Herzig and associate professor of biology Will Ambrose each received the Kroepsch Award, bestowed by past and current students in recognition of superior teaching.

OTHER DEATHS: Bates mourned the passing of two friends from Facility Services and one each from Dining Services and Athletics. Lorette L. Beland passed away on Jan. 9 at the age of 86. She worked in Dining Services from 1972 to 1995.… Andrew C. Bennett, a member of the Facility Services staff from 1967 to 1982, died on Jan. 17, also at 86…. Francis “Frank” Levesque joined Athletics in 1977 and served a decade as equipment manager. He died on Dec. 5 at 80…. J. Lewis Littlefield was 85 at the time of his passing on Jan. 9. He started in Facility Services in 1966 and retired in 1981.